PANAJI

Three Goan triathletes, Nisha Madgavkar, Vinayak Gaonkar and Omkar Kudtarkar completed the gruelling, Ironman 70.3 triathlon races in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Sunday, February 25.

The Goan triathletes swam a distance of 1.9 kms in the sea followed by 90kms of cycling and 21 kms of running back-to-back. Vinayak was the quickest of the trio clocking 5 hrs 25 mins for this distance, followed by Nisha at 6 hrs 9 mins and Omkar at 7 hrs, 19 mins.

While this was Nisha’s third, Ironman 70.3 title, it was Vinayak and Omkar’s first Ironman 70.3 titles, thus announcing the growing popularity of this sport across Goa. Other Goan Ironman triathletes include Dr Prasanna Parulekar and Shweta Bhandare, who is based in the USA.

The Ironman events are organised by the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC) and are the more gruelling versions of the Olympic distance triathlons. The Ironman 70.3 which is popularly known as the ‘Half Ironman’ is roughly two-times the distance of the Olympic Triathlon. All three Goan triathletes have regularly taken part in the annual Goa Triathlon event.